Read Death Troopers

Troopers and “Troopers.”

This book has been on my “to-read” shelf for ages and I finally got it from the library and read it. I was confident enough in it that I would’ve been willing to buy it without reading it, and my confidence was not misplaced.

Joe Schreiber is a good writer with a grasp on the realistic aspect of the Star Wars universe, and this example of Star Wars + horror is well done, captivating, and definitely does not disappoint. When I went into it, I knew absolutely nothing about it, and that’s making a review very difficult, because much of my delight in the book came from pleasant surprises all through it. (I was apparently the only person on the planet who didn’t know it was about zombies. I was pleased with that surprise, but I’ll tell you and it won’t spoil much.)

Set the year before A New Hope (year 01137), the plot follows a few prisoners — two boys, a couple of smugglers — one of the guards, and the medical officer of the Imperial prison ship Purge. It does indeed follow the standard zombie protocols — outbreak, infection, death — but I deny the accusations that the SW elements are merely “pasted on top.” True, it’s about a bunch of random characters, but enough takes place in the universe that we don’t always have to have main character adventures. It is, to my knowledge, the only adult SW horror book, and is a light read, perfect for the approaching summer months. Highly recommended!

(The only thing I would note is that it is a zombie book and as such does contain a few instances of pretty intense gore. Not much, but enough you might want to be forewarned.)